ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 22733, 8 November 1935, Page 12

ENTERTAINMENTS

THE MAJESTIC “THE CASINO MURDER CASE” No subject so lends itself to the talkies as a murder and no murder mystery has given an audience greater thrills than that now featured at the Majestic Its caption is’ “The Casino Murder Case,” and its swift-moving action, the clever cloaking of clues and the superb acting make it outstanding entertainment. Philo Vance, the detective created by Van Dine, is the tral figure in the Casino murder, and the role is excellently played by Lukas. Alison Skipworth plays the part of Mrs Llewellyn, the mad woman, and Donald Cook, Rosalind Russell and Louise Fazenda are all cast in prominent parts. The mystery is based on family jealousy. There .are old Mrs Llewellyn, her son Lynn, and his wife Virginia, whom no one likes; Doris, Mrs Llewellyn’s secretary and companion; Mrs Llewellyn’s brother, whose hobby is chemistry; and other connections of the family. Vance receives a note suggesting that he should go to the Casino, a cabaret and gambling house conducted by the old woman’s brother, in order that he may avert a tragedy to Lynn. He goes there, and, despite all precautions, Lynn is taken seriously ill immediately after drinking water from his uncles carafe. At the same time, his wife, with whom, the old lady has had a violent quarrel, dies at home, apparently because of the same poison which has affected Lynn, Vance finds that the water bottle in her room is empty. Then news is received that Mrs Llewellyn is dead. She has shot herself and left a note confessing to the murder of her son’s wife. Vance is not deceived by this confession, however, and he follows a difficult and dangerous trail which leads to Lynn’s uncle, but he is convinced that he has been misled. At this stage he guesses the identity of the murderer, but this is kept well covered until all the proof is found. The main picture is supported by several excellent short films including a comedy featuring Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly, and one dealing with the game of Rugby football, described by Pete Smith. NOEL COWARD’S BRILLIANT FILM DEBUT. “THE SCOUNDREL.” Noel Coward makes his appearance on the talking screen in a most unusual picture, “The Scoundrel,” which opens at the Majestic Theatre on Saturday evening. It is the story of a scoundrel, a man who wrecked the lives of many women, rode roughshod over their affections, and, considering only his own feelings and pleasure, treated life as something which was in duty bound to amuse and entertain him. Coward is seen as Anthony Mallare, a New York publisher, whose office is thronged by authors seeking to interest him in their efforts. He is a man entirely incapable of understanding the deeper realities of life. The novels that interest him are those which glide lightly and brilliantly over the surface of things. Nevertheless he is possessed of a real flair for publishing, so that even his most bitter detractors have to acknowledge his success. Mallare’s interest is not confined to lighter literature. His successes with women are quite as marked as are those which distinguish his business career, and to his many feminine admirers he preserves the same attitude of detachment. They attract him for six months and then he forgets them —oblivious of any feeling whether they can forget him. And so when a young girl enters his office with a book of poems, it is not only her verse which commends her to him. For a few months he makes persistent love to her, aware of the transitory nature of his feeling for the girl and regardless of the fact that he is coming between her and a man who loves her deeply. She disregards all warnings and for a few months she succeeds in holding Mallare’s attention. But the inevitable happens. A new face appears on the scene, and she is deserted. She realizes too late that she has given her affections to a man with no redeeming features, in his character, a man who is quite incapable of understanding either loyalty. or selfsacrifice. In a scene of fierce reproaches she flings at him her curse that the aeroplane journey he is about to take in pursuit of another woman may end in his death. Next day the New York newspapers are full of the news that the Bermuda plane has crashed in the Atlantic and that among her passengers was the celebrated publisher Anthony Mallare. His friends, or rather those who once knew him, have discussed the fatality and dismissed it, when the figure of Mallare again appears among them. But it is a changed and pathetic Mallare. For this is but the ghost of the former man which has been given a month in which to find some person who will shed a tear for him to save him from the damnation of those who die unwept. The desperate search for that one person with the faintest feeling of sympathy for the man who never showed any himself is graphically depicted. The climax is reached in a dramatic scene in which the figure that was Mallare meets the girl whom he had once loved and left to suffer. Repentance and sympathy come to the man, who forgets his own plight in that of the girl and her newly-reunited lover, and with that sympathy he begets the tears which save him from his doom. Coward gives a remarkable performance. A special programme will be provided on Saturday for boys and girls. The films will include Tom Mix, the famous Western star in “The Man from Texas,” Oswald the Rabbit (cartoon), a coloured cartoon, “The Kids in the Shoe,” “The Red Rider” and other bright subjects. A competition that will no doubt appeal to all juveniles is advertised on the front page. CIVIC THEATRE. “OH! DADDY” AND “ONE NIGHT OF LOVE.” “Oh! Daddy” is a film which boasts of such players as Leslie Henson, Robertson Hare and Frances Day. Henson and Hare are comrades in iniquity who appear in the early stages of the story as the president and secretary respectively of a Purity League organized chiefly by the former’s uncle. When Lord Pye (Leslie Henson) sets off for Birmingham with his secretary to represent the league at a purity conference the trouble begins. They miss their train for Birmingham, and find their way instead to London, and a very expensive West End hotel. At first there is some pretence that their investigation of the city’s night life is in the interest of their league, but they have scarcely begun to taste before they are anxious for a feast. And so, while Lord Pye spends a hectic evening with a cabaret dancer, his secretary pays a visit to a night club known by the inviting name of the “Devil’s Kitchen” (formerly “Up in Mabel’s Room”). Morning finds one in the bath in his evening suit, and both very much the worse for wear. Their troubles, however, have only begun, for Uncle Samson, on their return home, is very anxious to gain more information about the conference than their somewhat hazy references to agendas can disclose. Their confusion is completed when, the cabaret singer also arrives

at the house. Eventually everything is straightened up by the simple expedient of confessing that purity leagues are not half so interesting as that slice of-London life. Uncle Samson is driven from the house, Lady Pye, who is in the swim with the cabaret dancer, her daughter by a former marriage, improves the shining hour by extracting a dress or two, and the Purity League comes to a hilarious if untimely end. Henson makes a very convincing Lord Pye, and Robertson Hare is as lugubrious as ever in the role of the secretary who strays so widely from the path of strict virtue; Frances Day gives a vigorous performance as the cabaret girl. After seeing her dance it is not much wonder if the president of the Purity League did get a little excited about it. Others in the cast are Marie Lohr and Alfred Drayton. Moviedom hails a new, vibrant, glamorous screen personality . . . the ravishing, radiant Grace Moore, screen star, concert artist and radio singer, and star -of the film sensation, “One Night of Love.” Her triumphant song literally transports one into a fairyland world of music, beauty and thrilling emotion. Her glorious, alluring charm, her vibrant personality radiates a magnetism from the screen that is captivating and seductive. The world has taken her to its heart as an opera star —it will welcome her with lavish praise as the new screen sensation! Supporting Miss Moore in “One Night of Love” is the romantic Tullio Carminati, Lyle Talbot, Mona Barrie and Jessie Ralph. TO-MORROW—“ROBERTA.” The much-talked-of musical play “Roberta” commences a short season at the Civic to-morrow. Smith’s Weekly,. commenting on this attraction, says: Three unusual qualities combine to make “Roberta” totally different from the regulation screen-musical. The most important distinction is that it has a story, and a clever one at that, without the least reference to a struggling song-writer or a Viennese beergarden. Its theme, in fact, so light, slight and amusing, is the ideal stuff for - operetta; but in this case, the music and the songs are introduced so spontaneously that, in its effect, _ the film is just as successful as a straightforward comedy as it is as a musical spectacle. The other two distinguishing qualities are its dancing and its costumes. The tap-dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is certainly the best that the screen has so far shown us. But with all this surfaceopulence of display, the film is carried to its success chiefly by the acting. Irene Dunne, as Stephanie, has never played with more grace; she makes the part solid and human and enchanting, where it might have been as dollish as a mannequin. Helen Westley, as Roberta herself, the founder of the business, contributes a perfect bit of portraiture—an old lady who can be terrible, but an old lady with grace, breeding, quiet humour, and even a certain romantic air. Her picture of an old lady falling off to sleep is done with such curious charm that the impression remains long after the film has finished. Ginger Rogers, apart from her inspired dancing, looks beautiful from several angles in a gown that makes hei- resemble a frilled black snake. Randolph Scott conveys the exact impression of a bewildered he-man transplanted to a modiste’s boudoir. As for Fred Astaire, it is difficult to make him a very romantic figure—his chin is built the wrong way for that —but he speaks every language with his feet, and performs prodigies of tap-dancing. Also in the cast, we noticed with pleasure, that gifted, if-unknown, player, who is able to transform his voice at will from soprano to basso-profundo.. All the singing is good, and there is a clever contrast between the “hot” numbers of Ginger Rogers and the quiet beauti-fully-controlled voice of Irene Dunne. REGENT THEATRE. “PRIVATE WORLDS.” INTERESTING DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT. Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea and Joan Bennett head the cast of a most interesting story woven around the lives of those controlling the affairs of a large mental hospital. Miss Colbert was' recently awarded the Motion Picture Academy Award for the finest performance dur--, ing 1934 with a comedy role, and now she scores again heavily with an entirely different class of performance. She and Joel McCrea are two doctors working on advanced and sympathetic lines among those mentally afflicted. As a team they are wonderfully successful and through the results of their work it seems certain that McCrea will receive promotion to the position of superintendent when that post becomes vacant. Things do not quite work out that way and Charles Boyer, a Continental doctor, takes charge. This upsets McCrea, who carries on discontentedly, neglects his wife (Joan Bennett) and enters into an intrigue with the new doctor’s sister (Helen Vinson) whose doings in France had caused her brother to leave Europe and go to America. In a short time the lives of this small group are snarled in a web of love, intrigue and conflicting wills. The denouement of the drama occurs when Joan- Bennett is driven to the verge of insanity by her husband’s unfaithfulness and Claudette Colbert is awakened to the love that awaits her. Claudette Colbert again rises to the occasion and gives an intensely alive and appealing portrait of the woman psychiatrist who has always worked in company with a fellow-doctor in the great mental home where she is employed. It is when the life of this fel-low-doctor takes a turn which leaves him momentarily defeated and seeking escape, when the whole tenor of life changes, that the foundations of the subsequent events are laid. Charles Boyer gives a very fine performance indeed, as the newcomer who so drastically upsets their little world. The supporting programme contains two most interesting newsreels, a sportlight dealing with the 10 most intelligent animals, a Paramount Pictorial and other items. The whole programme is recommended. “WEREWOLF OF LONDON.” EVERY MINUTE A THRILL! THE REGENT TO-MORROW. Men turn into wolves before your eyes, beautiful flowers eat live frogs and attempt to eat children and moonlight becomes crystallized as it strikes strange flowers in Universal’s newest and spookiest film, “Werewolf of London,” which opens to-morrow at the Regent Theatre, with Henry Hull and Warner Oland in the leading roles. Universal is noted for its pictures that send cold chills up and down the spine. This is the studio that made “Dracula,” “Frankenstein,” “The Old Dark House,” “The Mummy,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and many other famous films of this order. Those who have seen “Werewolf of London,” declare it is weirder and spookier and more thrilling than any of these others that have gone before. “Werewolf of London” is the story of an English scientist who goes to Tibet seeking the fabled “wolf flower.” This is the flower, mythology tells us, which was used to prevent a man from turning into a wolf. The idea was that werewolf was half man and half wolf, and if he bit a human that person was transformed into a wolf each month during the full of the moon. This English scientist, played by Henry Hull, finds his wolf flowers, but he is also bitten by a were-

wolf in the mountains of Tibet. He returns to England with his flowers—his only safeguard against the dread horror of turning into a wolf. The flowers are stolen and Hull becomes a wolf and throws London into a furore. Robert Harris, writer of this story, allowed his imagination to run riot, and the actors, director and camerman have faithfully given everything to the screen. Warner Olana also plays a werewolf role. Others in the cast include Valerie Hobson, Lawrence Grant, Lester Matthews, Clark Williams and Charlotte Granville. THEATRE ROYAL, WINTON. “HIDE-OUT.” “Hide-Out,” which will be shown at Winton to-night and on Saturday is the story of a jovial, playboy racketeer who believes he has everything youth could desire—plenty of money without earning it, pleasure and romance. But it is not until he is driven into the sheltering bosom of a simple farmers family that he really discovers life and love. Robert Montgomery, as Lucky Wilson, runs afoul of the law in his New York “shake-down” racket and is forced by his gang brothers to hide out for a few weeks. He finds himself on a Connecticut farm and amid the farmer’s family—Mr Miller, Mrs'Miller, their lovely daughter, Pauline, and their pestiferous boy, Willie. The picture fairly breathes of the rural setting, with a wealth of wholesome humour injected into the plot through Montgomery’s ignorance of rural life and the habits of farm stock.